A job that takes a person several minutes has now been reduced to 30 seconds – thanks to a device known as an automatic dispensing system, or ADS.

For about a year now, Mobley Drugs Inc. has been using an ADS made by the Raleigh, N.C.-based company Rx Medic. The computer-run machine can store more than 200 different medications and dispense them instantly to fill a prescription.

The scent of freshly baked cookies greets you as you walk through the doors of Mahaffey Funeral Home & Cremation Center.

Those tasty treats are some of the small things Joe Wilson has introduced to make his business friendlier.

Wilson is the new owner of Mahaffey Funeral Home, which is Lancaster County’s oldest continually operating funeral establishment. With his purchase in May, the business is now locally owned for the first time since the early 1990s.

A local company has played a role in helping reshape the residential landscape in Uptown Charlotte.

Majestic Landscaping & Palms, based in Lancaster, was hired earlier this year to deliver and plant windmill palm trees on the rooftop terrace of The Garrison at Graham, a new six-floor loft-style housing development that offers its residents close views of the Charlotte skyline.

Dennis Donahue, owner of Majestic Landscaping, said his business was contacted in July and did the job on Sept. 25, all in one day.